Grand Rapids to reduce the trash millage: Find out how much you'll save

MLive.com FileThe refuse millage in Grand Rapids will be reduced by 11 percent as the city implements a new 'pay as you tip' trash pickup system, here demonstrated last year by operator Benjie Cutts.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – As part of this summer’s transition to a cart-based “pay-as-you-throw” trash collection system, Grand Rapids plans to reduce its refuse levy to 1.6 mills.

The 0.2-mill reduction proposed in the city’s 2012-2013 budget amounts to 20 cents for every $1,000 of a property's taxable value, or $10 per year on a home with a taxable value of $50,000 and a state-equalized value of about $100,000. Officials said the millage could be reduced more in coming years if the new trash program succeeds. A long-term budget contemplates a reduction to 1.5 mills in 2014.

Most city trash customers now buy garbage bags or tags for pickups, but the millage still funds about half the cost of collection, officials said. Under the new “pay-as-you-throw” system, the full cost of trash collection will be covered by cart fees.

Because the city expects a 40-percent increase in productivity under the new system, the typical resident should end up paying only slightly more for pickup.

“We’ll be competing head-to-head with the private sector and that cost to pick up the refuse will be borne by the fee,” said James Hurt, director of public services. “If (residents) do the math, they’ll understand that it’s in their best interest to do the cart” fee instead of the bag-and-tag fee.

“They’re going to find that the cart is cheaper for them to go to.”

City trash subscribers now pay $1.50 per 30-gallon city trash bag - or $1.50 for a city trash tag for use on a personal trash bag. Under the new system, subscribers will be charged a fee every time they put a trash cart at the curb: $2 for a 32-gallon cart, $4 for a 64-gallon cart and $6 for a 96-gallon cart.

Residents still will be able to use trash bags and tags, but the price of new bags will increase to $2.50 and they no longer will be available at as many locations as they are now.

City Manager Greg Sundstrom called it “a realigning of the cost” of trash collection, shifting the cost from the full populace – in the form of a millage reduction – to trash customers who will pay a cart-tipping fee.

Grand Rapids officials also are exploring ways to make maintenance of the city’s storm water system self-supporting, either through a dedicated millage or a user fee. The city’s refuse fund now spend an estimated $1.5 million per year sweeping streets on behalf of the storm water system, for example.

Sundstrom said the refuse millage could be lowered even more “if there were another way to fund (storm water needs) from some other magical place.”